Grave Digger - Thursday Ragin Steel - Friday Grave Digger - 2:00 Sat Grave Digger - 8:00 Sat
Grave Digger - Thursday Grave Digger - Friday Grave Digger- 2:00 Sat Grave Digger - 8:00 Sat
Weekend Race Recap
Bangor, ME (June 7-8-9, 2001)
Thursday
Bangor race fans are some of the heartiest in the country and were treated to the return of Gravedigger with Gary Porter in the driver's seat. In addition, John Seasock's Sudden Impact made his first trip to Speedway 95 to square off against Erridicator, Iron Warrior, and Ragin Steel (featuring the debut of rookie driver Brandon Harrington). Andy Silfko set fast qualifying time in Erradicator and won lane choice, but squaring off against Digger in round one, he moved to the loser bracket. Seasock easily defeated Ragin Steel to head to quarter finals. A win over Glenn Bolin in Iron Warrior by Sudden Impact pitted Seasock against Digger in the finals. The closest race of the night was the finals as Seasock got the hole shot over Porter, but Porter's Digger gained speed and edged out for the win. Freestyle was a close contest with Digger's 29 beating Iron Warrior's 25.
On to Street Warriors. Over a dozen local hopefuls showed up with one thing in mind of Thursday, beating last year's champ, Larry Laney. In the end, John Killinger's high riding orange Ford took the win over Laney's tired Toyota "Iron Man". Finishing times for all competitors: Killinger: 33.35, Laney: 34.38, Nate Wardell: 35.31, Robert Russell "Jumpin Jeep": 35.44, Barri Babcock "UPS Special": 35.50, Donald Cianci: 37.81, Bub Shorey: 41.25.
In the Quad Wars, Team New York swept the New England home-towners in all three races. New England, featuring mostly home state riders have huddled and vowed to return Friday and Saturday to claim victory.
Friday
Rookie driver and Augusta, Maine resident, Brandon Harrington set the pace in the 2001 Chevy Ragin Steel. Although not fast qualifyer, the 18 year old showed what it takes to be a pro monster truck driver knocking off two of the hottest trucks on the USHRA circuit. After a first round loss to Erradicator in round one, Harrington returned as fast loser to square off against John Seasock in Sudden Impact in the semi-finals. In a photo finish, Steel stole the win and advanced to the finals against Gary Porter in Gravedigger. With the crowd chanting Brandon, Brandon the "Downeaster", put Digger away in the final round. Freestyle was a bit different as Digger lived up to the name king of the hill as Porter earned a 29 from very discerning judges. Seasock took 2nd, with Ragin Steel, Erradicator and Iron Warrior 3rd-5th respectively.
In Street Warriors, 16 of Maine's strongest street warriors lined the track on Friday with a major shuffle of the top 4 spots from Thursday night. Donald Cicanci in his battered Nissan took the win with a 32.79. 2nd was Corey Weymouth with 33.53. 3rd was Thursday's top dog, John Killinger, Jr with a 37.75 and Barri Babcock had to settle for 4th with a 40.56.
Finally, in Quad Wars, Team New England rallied their riders Friday night taking wins in the second heat and came out on top in the final 6 lap main.
Saturday Afternoon
Gary Porter driving Gravedigger may have felt like he needed to run as hard as he could on Saturday afternoon after losing Friday night to Rookie driver Brandon Harrington in Ragin Steel. Again it came down to the Augusta, Maine rookie and the Kill Devil Hills veteran in the finals. Digger came on strong all afternoon with fast qualifying and a win in the finals. The two trucks got to the finals with a Ragin Steel win over Erradicator and Iron Warrior in the first two rounds. Digger won in round one and beat Erradicator in round two. Porter continued the roll with a perfect 30 in freestyle to Andy Silfko's Erradicator 29. Glenn Bolin in Iron Warrior scored a 27 with his reverse wheelie and Ragin Steel rounded out the freestyle competition with a 25. John Seasock ran hard in racing, but his tranny went south for freestyle and was not able to make the run.
New England's hottest street warriors converged on Speedway 95 and were hotter than the 78 degree sunshine. The final four shoot out saw Thursday's winner John Killinger with a repeat win and hoping to make it a three-peat in Saturday night's contest. Larry Laney, last year's 3 time champion took 2nd, Chris Weymouth 3rd and Rob Eckert taking 4th.
The Bangor crowd was treated to a spectacular 2 race win by their New England home team. The field was limited in the afternoon event to the two team captains and two co-captains. Riders for New England were Mark Cleves and Damien Hooper. Team New York was represented by Gardner Bridge and captain Troy Hopkins.
Saturday Evening
Saturday night was a perfect spring night for racing in Bangor with temps hovering in the low 70's and racing action twice as hot. Digger set fast time in qualifying followed closely by Sudden Impact. In round one, Seasock beat Iron Warrior and Ragin Steel edged Erradicator. Digger's bye run pitted him against fast loser, Erradicator in round two. The win put him in the finals for the fourth time of the weekend. Sudden Impact earned his first finals berth with a win over Ragin Steel. Digger was eventually the winner in the final race of the weekend. It seemed there were some very tough judges over the weekend in Bangor for monster truck freestyle. Having gone thru three of the four shows without a single perfect 30, most were thinking it wouldn't happen on Saturday night. John Seasock and Glenn Bolin were both sidelined with mechanical problems, so that left it up to Silfko in Erradicator, Harrington in Raging Steel, and Porter in Grave Digger. First out was Erradicator with a monster sky wheelie over the double stacked vans…23. Ragin Steel came out hot and stayed hot, but didn't sway the judges for the elusive triple 10, being awarded a 26. Then Digger came out like a pack of cats after the lobster. Time was ticking as Porter ran over everything in sight….cars, vans, terra tires. Time was running out. With ten seconds on the clock Porter slid the truck into a 180 for his final pass. The 48 inch tire used to line the race track then became the obstacle and what proved to gain that perfect 30. As if in slow motion, then flopped over on its side as time expired. That must have been what the standing room only crowd was looking for.
Not many more adjectives can be used to describe the hard charging Street Warriors in Maine. So the numbers will speak for themselves. John Killinger Jr. was the big winner of the weekend with 3 firsts. New names to the winner's circle on Saturday night were Skip Simpson (2nd), Barri Babcock (3rd) and Matt Randell taking 4th.
In the Quad Wars, Team New England came out on fire Saturday night with an attempt to avenge previous losses. They swept both heats and the main. However, the USHRA official negated the final win due to an illegal start. Both teams agreed the only way to settle it was a one-on-one between captains. In the end, Team New England prevailed.
Finally, the crowd was treated to a half time show from the local Shriners' Mini Monster Truck precision driving team headquartered in Bangor. They turned out with a dozen little crushers and performed a 15 minute show. The Shriner's group in the area is very active in entertaining children and raising money for several Shriner's Hospitals around the nation. USHRA salutes the volunteer efforts of the Bangor Area Shriners.
